598: How An Unproven Entrepreneur Built a Cybersecurity Unicorn

On today’s tech podcast, I am proud to share one of the most inspirational&nbsp;tech startup stories I have heard after recording nearly 600 interviews.&nbsp;Andrew Rubin is the founding CEO of cybersecurity unicorn Illumio Andrew’s fast and unconventional rise in Silicon Valley from a small business owner in St.

On today’s tech podcast, I am proud to share one of the most inspirational tech startup stories after recording nearly 600 interviews. Andrew Rubin is the founding CEO of cybersecurity unicorn Illumio. Andrew’s fast and unconventional rise in Silicon Valley from a small business owner in St. Louis with little security background only five years ago to fast-tracking the company to “unicorn” status just six months after launching out of stealth in 2014 is both exceptional and inspiring in equal measure.

For example, of the nine cybersecurity “unicorn” CEOs at companies like Cylance, Crowdstrike, and Tanium, Andrew is the only one without a tech pedigree or deep roots in security. What is the key to his success? Mentorship. Andrew says he built Illumio 100% through his mentors, enlisting people like Marc Benioff, Ben Horowitz and John Thomson (MSFT chairman).

What did these tech titans see in an unknown sales guy from NYC? Andrew shares his unconventional path and inspirational tech startup story to building a $1B+ company and how other non-traditional, non-pedigreed entrepreneurs can rewire their own approaches to mentorship.

As the chief executive officer and founder, Andrew is responsible for the overall strategy, vision, and funding of Illumio. With expertise in the areas of network security and compliance management, Andrew is a frequent participant in panels, articles, and podcasts for leading industry events and publications. Goldman Sachs has named Andrew as one of the “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs” in 2015, 2016, and 2017 as part of the Builders & Innovators program.

About Illumio

Illumio is a leader in micro-segmentation that prevents the spread of breaches inside data center and cloud environments. Enterprises such as Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, Salesforce, and Oracle NetSuite use Illumio to reduce cyber risk and achieve regulatory compliance. The Illumio Adaptive Security Platform® uniquely protects critical information with real-time application dependency and vulnerability mapping coupled with micro-segmentation that works across any data center, public cloud, or hybrid cloud deployment on bare-metal, virtual machines, and containers.

CNBC named Illumio in the 2018 Disruptor 50 List for the second consecutive year and it is also recognized as one of the top 50 most innovative companies in the world.